Triton Digital Releases U.S. Podcast Report for 2023

January 30, 2024 at 09:00 AM EST

Report Shows Over 40% of U.S. Listened to Podcasts Within Past Month and Increasing Listener Growth

Triton Digital, the global technology and services leader to the digital audio, podcast, and broadcast radio industries, today released its second annual U.S. Podcast Report. The report provides insights into the evolving U.S. podcast landscape over the course of 2023, including listening habits, audience demographic data, and insights into the top podcasts, networks, and debuts from the Triton U.S. Podcast Ranker, and more.

According to the report, the number of monthly podcast listeners continues to rise with 12% growth over the past two years. In 2023, 40% of the U.S. population reported listening to a podcast within the past month. This growth was reflected across all segments of the population, especially those late to adopting podcasts as a preferred medium. Other notable findings include:

Older Americans and women are listening to podcasts at a faster rate, with a 22% increase in listeners over the age of 55 and a 19% increase in female listeners 18+ over the past two years.
Top podcast genres of 2023 were News (22% of downloads), True Crime (18%), and Comedy (15%). Of True Crime podcast listeners, 67% were female, of Comedy podcast listeners 62% were male, and of News podcast listeners 58% were male.
The top sales networks of 2023 in the Triton U.S. Podcast Ranker were SiriusXM Podcast Network at #1, NPR at #2, and Wondery at #3. The top podcast of the year was NPR News Now (NPR).
Crime Junkie remained one of the top podcasts in 2023 – its “MURDERED: David Josiah Lawson” episode was the most downloaded, while its “INFAMOUS: The Todt Family” episode was the most popular, based on downloads in the first 30 days.

The report incorporates data from multiple sources, including IAB Tech Lab certified Triton Podcast Metrics service, which measures server log data from the Triton Omny Studio platform and a variety of other industry hosting platforms. It also includes data from Triton Podcast Metrics Demos+ solution, which provides demographics and audience characteristics for podcasts of all sizes, as well as the Demos+ survey of 12,000 monthly podcast listeners in the U.S., done in collaboration with Signal Hill Insights.

“2023 was another year of significant growth for the podcast industry, and with increasing female and over 55+ audiences, we can expect more content production to serve those groups in the coming year,” said Daryl Battaglia, SVP Measurement Products & Strategy, Triton Digital. “As podcast listenership continues to rise and reach new audiences, we’ll continue to provide our customers with in-depth insights around podcast consumption and listener habits in the coming year.”

To download the full 2023 U.S. Podcast Report, please visit: tritonrankers.com.

To learn more about participating in Triton Digital’s podcast and streaming rankers, please contact: solutions@tritondigital.com.

About Triton Digital

Triton Digital^® is the global technology and services leader to the digital audio, podcast, and broadcast radio industries. Operating in more than 80 countries, Triton provides innovative technology that enables broadcasters, podcasters, and online music services to build their audience, maximize revenue, and streamline their day-to-day operations. In addition, Triton powers the global online audio industry with Webcast Metrics^®, the leading streaming audio measurement service and Podcast Metrics, one of the first IAB certified podcast measurement services in the industry. With unparalleled integrity, excellence, teamwork, and accountability, Triton remains committed to connecting audio, audience, and advertisers to continuously fuel the growth of the global audio industry. For more information, visit www.TritonDigital.com.